Many people on Protagonize enjoy writing stories with elves and magic in them. Some enjoy stories such as Star Wars or Star Trek. This story is meant to combine the two into one.

Instead of the traditional magical story, with characters living in ancient times, using swords and bows, this story will be set in the future. Instead of bows, people would use weapons very similar to those in science fiction shows. Horses are the normal method of transport in fantasy stories, but space ships would instead fly between planets and engage in combat.

My idea is to combine Star Trek like exploration/combat with fantasy races. The Vulcans would be replaced by elves, usually regarded as the oldest of races in fantasy stories. Since elves usually attack from range, their ships would have very accurate weapons. Elves do not excel in close combat, so the ships would also be fast enough to outrun most opponents, all the while shooting at them. This is but one example of combining two very different genres into, what I think anyway, could be a very interesting story.

Well, magic would replace some of the science in Star Trek. For example, the warp core might be a magical device. And the weapons and shields would be magical in nature. Most of the technology from Star Trek could become a form of magic.

As far as dwaves being robots, I don't know about that. That would make them kinda like to borg in Star Trek. Perhaps they are androids, like Data, instead of just pure robots. Maybe the dwarves were used for war by another species, but gained sentience and realized they were killing each other. They rebelled against their creators.

Also, for the design of ships, I was thinking that elves would have ships that were as much works of art as tools. The ships would have a unique, flowing design, and no two ships would be exactly the same. Dwarves, on the other hand, would have ships with geometric shapes, and perfect symmetry.

hmm should we make a list of races then and well talk about what would they become?

wizards for example they i guess would be closer to robots than dwarves. from most storys dwarves love mining and nothing else, perhaps they would be a workforce and would probably allied with barbarians, but do barbarians count as a race?

I am going to use character races from dnd 3.5 ed. They have bonuses and penalties, so no race should be all powerful. I will list some bonuses and penalties to abilities and skills.Con - Constitution, Cha - Charisma, Int - Intelligence, Wis - Wisdom, Str - Strength, Dex - Dexterity

Characters:Human - no bonuses/penalties. (very adaptable, so they could do about anything)

Dwarf - +2 con, -2 cha, +2 for metalworking, +4 against being moved (tractor beam or something like that) (I would say probably miners and traders, strong ships to protect their goods)

Halfling - +2 dex, -2 str, +2 for climb, jump (engine improvement), and move silently (probably a cloaking device)(I want to use the halfings as pirates. They usually are rogues in dnd.)

Dragonborn - +2 con, -2 dex, (no useful skill bonuses in space) (They fight for good in dnd, so I'm thinking about changing bonuses. They could then be a group with strong morals who defend against wizards(borg) and the dominion(orcs)) (updated abilities - +2 con, +2 str, -4 dex, this makes them powerful and hard to kill, but very unmanuverable)

Thank you for the link, although I already took some initiative and found the story. I read the first chapter, and it looks very interesting. I added it as a favorite, and intend to read it over the next few days.

Well... I was really bored, so I did a lot of stats. My current idea is something like the species tolerate each other. There would be trade between races and so on, but they don't all like each other.

The reason I have said humans are adaptable goes something like this. The Elves and Dragonborn fight a battle against the orcs. The orcs manage to disable several Elven and Dragonborn ships, but are defeated. The Elves and Dragonborn leave the ships, as they are not equipped to salvage/ repair them. Before they return, humans steal weapons from both, and later attempt to combine the power of the Dragonborn weapons with the accuracy of the Elves.

So basically, beyond developing the magic core (warp core), the humans try to use the technology of others. This irritates the others. Sporadic fighting, blah, blah, blah, eventually the orcs and ogres attack in force, forcing the others to work together. They drive the orcs back temporarily, and decide working together isn't so bad of an idea. They found a federation like community, and everyone lives happily ever after... but of course we could continue on after that.

This is just the rough draft of the plot, so it can be changed as needed.

Dwarves as robots or androids doesn't sound too appealing to me. Mostly because Dwarves are usually the ones with the big temper, so to have an emotionless robot portray a dwarf sounds a little strange. Wizards, though, as robots sounds good. Emotionless wizards sounds very interesting.

Also, I was thinking... wouldn't it be interesting if every race had some sort of advantage? Like, what if this story did take place on one planet (maybe that's completely changing your idea) and Elves were the only ones with space ships? Or something similar to that. That way Elves would have the advantage of the sky, and maybe the dwarves have some sort of advantage on the ground.

Another thing that needs to be taken into consideration is how you plan on writing this. In my humble opinion, I think it'd be pretty interesting to write it as if it was a Bible story. You know what I mean? Pretty distant from the actual characters. You state the facts, and occasionally have dialogue, but don't go really deep into how each character feels. Though, at the same time, it might just be more well, awesome, to have the story told from a general (or a king's) perspective. Anyway, that does need to be thought about.

And if everyone has spaceships, then people must have guns right? Well what if we made each "medieval" weapon futuristic? Like a sword could be sort of like a lightsaber, and a crossbow could shoot arrows that explode on contact (that's from Black Ops, but hey maybe we can make SOME good out of it) or maybe there are different KINDS of arrows! Cannons could shoot lasers, and blah blah blah.

In all seriousness, you can go anywhere with this story. It has soo much potential. That's good, but it's also a challenge to choose how to do things. I mean, maybe half of the people on protagonize would like it one way, and the other half may like it the other. You never know.

I'll be following this thread closely now, because you've got me interested! And if you wouldn't mind, when you start it up, I'd like to join in on the fun!

meh lightsabers could be taken to a new level, for those who played final fantasy or watched final fantasy advent childern. Imagine the buster blade, as a energy blade or light saber :D. At rate I like russ`s idea I also like the idea that everyone writes from the point of view of a general or king, and maybe if an author has the time to work as a soldier to cover more points of view.

I need to look up dragon born cuz I have no idea what they are or look like.

Also the drow could play a nuetral pirate like scenario in the war if you like not exactly on anyones side but mostly serve themselves.

Perhaps the bible idea would work. But then, it would be maybe a little more difficult to do battles. Ships communicate with each other, like the general telling a ship to attack a specific target. If there were no dialogue, then the battle likely wouldn't make sense.

I'll try to adapt your idea though... Perhaps the story should be written from the perspective of the entire crew. Take the Elven Battleship Caeldrim (Flying Arrow). The Captain gives orders, the officers respond, he communicates with other ships... All of the normal shipboard activities, but it is told from 3rd person, and no one knows what the characters are thinking. That could likely build much more suspense. The bible story idea sounds kind of like a history book. I don't know about you, but my history book is boring.

@chimerakiller2Dragonborn look kind of like Predators from the predator movies, with the things hanging off their head. They have 4 claws on their hand, 3 opposed by 1, and their face looks like that of a dragon. They are covered in scales.

@Russel Like a history book, but completely and utterly different. In the Bible they write something like this:

And then Elyon went forth into Lavradoor searching for allies to join him in the fight against the orcs. On the fifth day of the travel, he met up with an elf named Lee. Lee could pin a fly against a tree with his arrow, so Elyon said, "You will join me in battle." On the sixth day Elyon met up with a dwarf, etc. etc.

History books usually don't have dialogue, period. The Bible story style is interesting because you don't directly say what they were saying, you just talk about how they felt.

Ex. Not trusting the dwarf, Elyon did not ask him to join him in battle.

the third person idea is similar to the bible styled,but allows for more diaolouge , and more accurate action. We could also aproach the story in a Omniscient point of view. So you would be telling the story in first person, and maybe only knowing some of the thoughts of one person but being able to know whats going all over the ship. Which would be hard to write at first.

Hmmm.... I don't know... I would prefer to use the third person method.

Hehehe... I just went on wikipedia and looked up narrative modes. I think perhaps it should be in alternating person view. This means it switches between first and third person points of view. Example follows: I think it's like this.

(First person) Captain Amakiir of the Caeldrim walked onto the bridge."I need a situation report. Mr. Valarion, what is the status of the fleet?"The first officer, Commander Valarion, replied, "We have taken heavy losses. We called for reinforcements some time ago. They should arrive anytime."The captain thought to himself, I hope they get here soon. We can't possibly defend against the next attack with so few ships.

(Third person) *Several light years away*An elven fleet prepared to depart their colony. Suddenly, a fleet of orc ships jumped into the system. The elven ships were not ready for combat. The shields of the elven ships were not even activated when the orcs opened fire. Thousands of elves perished as the fleet was decimated. Some elven ships were partially shielded by the ships in front of them. They moved through the debris of the other ships, firing their weapons into the heart of the enemy fleet. Many of the crudely made orc ships were hit by the highly accurate fire.The human ships coming to support the elves, as required in a treaty, arrived on the opposite side of the orcs. With fire from two directions, the orcs could not transfer power to forward or aft shields without being destroyed by fire from the opposite direction. The ships on the outside edges began jumping away to safety, having been flanked by their opponents.

Then it would switch back to first person as the fleet arrived to assist the first fleet. With this method, each writer could have a ship that would be theirs for the first person part, while writing about other ships in the third person. At least that is how I interpret it.

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